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Dororon Enma-kun

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Dororon Enma-kun (ドロロンえん魔くん), also known as Satanikus!, is a Japanese horror-comedy anime and manga series created by Go Nagai. It's one of Nagai's most famous works in Japan, although not very well known in the rest of the world. Enma is the nephew of the king of hell (also named Enma). Due to him being somewhat of a handful, Enma is sent to the human world to capture youkai that have escaped hell and are causing problems. Following him is Chapeau-jii, a sentient witch's hat with an encyclopedic knowledge of youkai, Yukiko-Hime, a snow-woman princess and Enma's love interest, and Kappaeru, a kappa and Enma's best friend.

Joining them on their quest is Tsutomu-kun and Harumi-chan, two humans from the school Enma makes his base under (which one joins first depends on which version of the story you're reading/watching). Together, they make up the Demon Patrol, and work at protecting the town from youkai, sexually harassing Yukiko, and... well, that's about it, really.

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The series is particularly notable because it was Go Nagai's first attempt at a children's manga after almost single-handedly bootstrapping the Ecchi subgenre of comedy manga in Japan with Harenchi Gakuen — having said that, it is also a bit of Values Dissonance to western sensibilities: the nudity and sexuality in the series is blatant, especially in the more modern remakes, and Enma is a very unrepentant, perverted Anti-Hero. (except the original 1973 anime which was an attempt by Toei to make a true series for kids.)

The original 1973-1974 anime series aired originally on Fuji TV and was later rerun on TV Tokyo in the 1980s. Over the 40 years that Enma-kun has existed there have been a number of remakes, spin offs, and parodies. For example, in 2000, Go Nagai did a parody spinoff, Dororon Enpi-Chan (どろろん艶靡ちゃん), with a gender-bent cast and the sexuality turned up to 11 — notable because the main female lead, Enpi-chan (a sort of cross between Nagai's Kekko Kamen and Enma) is a reoccurring character in the most recent animated version.

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In 2006, it would get a sequel/remake in Demon Prince Enma, which dropped the comedy and became a full-fledged suspense-horror series. After the OVA was released, another manga version was released called Satanikus ENMA Kerberos by Eiji Toriyama, as well as a new series, Enma Vs Dororon Enma Kun Gaiden, which was a surprise crossover with Honey Kisaragi.

This is just touching the surface of the various versions of Enma, however — the Go Nagai Fans group on DeviantArt has an excellent summary here.

Most recently, an animated remake by Yoshitomo Yonetani entitled Dororon Enma-kun Meera Mera began airing in Japan in April 2011, and returns to the manga's comedic (and Ecchi) roots.

The 2011 series has been licenced by NIS America. The original 1973 anime, unlike Nagai's other works of the time period, has yet to be exported to the West.

Tropes appearing in the original anime and manga:

Gender Flip: Dororon Enpi-Chan, a parody manga by Go Nagai with a gender-flipped cast — Enma was replaced by Enpinote "Voluptuous seductress", who was just as sex crazed as Enma but also a nudist and exhibitionist to boot, Yukiko-Higenote "Beard", an effeminate male version of Yukiko-Hime, and Kabako, a female version of Kapperu. Playing the trope a little more straight, the male Tsutomu was replaced with Harumi (the other being demoted to extra) in the remake.

They Call Me Mister Tibbs / Insistent Terminology: Yukiko-hime gets mighty pissed whenever Enma-kun refers to her as "Yuki-chan," insisting that she be addressed by her full title. She finally eases up on this in the final episode, when a dying Enma-kun starts to call her "Yuki-chan" and corrects himself, and she tells him, "'Yuki-chan' is fine."

Anti-Villain: Enpi, who just wants the world to be a more fun and sexy place, and frequently has to turn on her own minions when they start going too far. And considering she's the only one who opposes the Global Genocide in the final two episodes on its own merits, she's arguably more heroic than the main characters.

Balloon Belly: Fukurashiko The Monster of the Week of episode six inflates people via touch, and those who are inflated also inflate those THEY touch. The entire cast winds up ballooned, and much Hilarity ensues.

Be The Ball: In episode 3, during a fight between Enma-kun and Chiiko in the female bathhouse, Enma attacks by throwing other girls as balls at Chiiko.

Blue-and-Orange Morality: Demons (and presumably Gods and Angels) can't be destroyed, as killing them merely sends them back to their respective planes of existence. As a result, they're very casual about death, and can't understand why humans make such a big fuss over it. This is actually important to the plot, as in the final two episodes, Heaven and Hell agree to kill off billions of humans in order to harvest their souls for "soulperglue". When Harumi points out how horriffic this is, Enma tells her not to worry... She should just do enough bad things to get sent to Hell when she dies, get the soulperglue painfully extracted from her for a measly hundred years or so, and then she'll be free to hang out with the rest of the gang!

Combat Commentator: Kappaeru in Episode 6, due to everyone else being in deep space at the time and thus unable to make any sound.

Combat Pragmatist: Renegade demons fight dirty, and Enma has had to pick up a fair few sneaky tricks of his own in his time on the Demon Patrol, ever since his first attempt to battle honourably resulted in Yukiko having to bail him out.

Creepy Uncle: Enma the Great, the mighty lord of Hell. Feared not for his terrible, infernal power, but for his flamboyant, overbearing, overly-affectionate attitude that sends even the sternest soul fleeing for the hills in minutes.

Dude, She's Like, in a Coma!: When Harumi and Yukiko fall into a deep sleep in Episode 4, Chapeau-jii kisses them to break the spell. When it doesn't work, Enma takes advantage of Yukiko's state all too eagerly.

Yukiko looks very much the heroine of Cutey Honey, which was also by Go Nagai and a lot more famous in the west.

Meanwhile, Enpi, the Mysterious Watcher of Episode 3, strongly resembles Kekko Kamen. Kekko herself makes an appearance in the final episode as an angel named Kekkou Honey, only she's wears Honey's outfit from the 90s OVA.

Five-Man Band: The cast's position is pretty much unchanged, save for Yukiko-hime being a full-time Lancer. Tsutomu-kun's role, meanwhile, got taken over by Harumi (his girlfriend in the original series) who also has shades of being The Chick.

How We Got Here: Episode 2 explains how and why Enma and the gang wound up on in the human world.

Hunter of His Own Kind: The Youkai Patrol hunt down and often kill other Youkai. So far none of them are angsting about it, mostly because killing a youkai is just a messier and more painful way of sending them back to Hell.

Magic Skirt: Yukiko's short kimono always covers her girl parts from the audience. Harumi's skirt seems to work the same way. Enpi's cape tends to fly up in just the right position to block herself from the camera.

Ms. Fanservice: Considering the improbably high odds of Yukiko-hime ending up naked and assaulted by tentacles in any given fight scene, she could almost be considered a parody of this archetype if Go Nagai hadn't invented it in the first place.

Ship Tease: Between Enma and Yukiko-hime. And to a lesser extent, Harumi as she seems to have a crush on Enma But by the final episode Yukiko-hime being Enma's long standing love interest ultimately won out if them gettin' it on during the massive sex orgy says anything.

The period and setting of the series (lower Tokyo in the early 70's) are practically identical to those of Brigadoon: Marin and Melan, which is also by Yoshitomo Yonetani, and much of the scenery and locations are the same with the bathhouse in Episode 1 and the amusement park in Episode 2 as two notable examples.

Kappaeru floats past the Monolith from 2001 in Episode Six.

Episode 10 references multiple Super Robot shows including Fire Goblin and Ice Goblin morphing into a robot that resembles Baron Ashura and ChoRyuJin, Enpi piloting a clone of Big Shooter, and three goblins based on food obviously forming (and completely failing at being) the Getter Team.

Many things in episode 12 including Wacky Races of all things. Ryo from Demon Lord Dante can be seen among the extras. Ultraman is briefly referenced in Enma's fight with Plume as her bra has a secret mirror in it, much like Baltan Seijin 2. Angel Mark possesses the Thunder Break from Great Mazinger. Finally one can find Gyaos hidden among the many individuals briefly when the power of love is activated.

Sociopathic Hero: Enma, who is less merciful to renegade demons than even the King of Hell wanted him to be. As he puts it, dead demons and banished demons end up in the same place either way, so it's no big deal which option he picks.

Soundtrack Dissonance: The show's ending theme at first sounds like a peaceful lullaby until you figure out that the lyrics are really about death.

Spiritual Successor: This series cleary aims to be to the original manga what Shin Mazinger is to Mazinger Z - remake that takes some freedom with original's plot, introduces new characters (including at last one Canon Immigrant) and gives main stars new, Crazy Awesome attacks, all to reintroduce the franchiche to modern audience and renew it's popularity.

Take That!: A strange example — Go Nagai has went on record as stating he pushed for/greenlit the Dororon Enma-Kun remake as a direct reaction to the 2010/2011 Anti-Anime laws being pushed through by Ishihara (the Governor of Tokyo), and that he specifically sees it as a repeat of the censorship he fought against in the early 70s (when his fighting against said censorship created the Ecchi subgenre).

Tentacle Rope: An amusement park is attacked by a squid demon, leading to this. Yukiko Hime, in addition to being tied up by the demon, was also stripped naked by it.

The Virus: The Roly-Poly Plague of Episode Six serves as an exceptionally unserious example.

Token Human: Harumi. At first she didn't even believe Youkai existed and was freaked when she found out they did, but she adjusted quickly after meeting the Patrol.

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